September 2009 Archives

A new website was recently added to the Through Our Parents' Eyes Architecture section: "The Blenman House: 1878 Victorian Territorial Architecture"

The Blenman House was constructed in 1878 by Charles Rivers Drake. It is thought to be the only example of San Francisco-style Victorian architecture built in Territorial-style adobe mud. While Drake used 20 inch thick adobe bricks for the home's exterior, it is the interior's wood detailing and leaded-glass skylights that distinguish it from any other homes in Tucson. Drake lived in the home until the late 1890s when he sold the home to Charles Blenman and relocated to Southern California.

Within this website we feature some spectacular QuickTime Virtual Realitiy (QTVR) panoramas of the lobby and six rooms that today carry the names of Charles Blenman's children. The QTVR panoramas were masterfully created by Gary Mackender of the UA's VR Annex.

In addition, one of the Blenman House's current owners, Jeff DiGregorio recorded a digital story about this historic building's early history. Jeff has researched the house, included it's original designer/owner Charles Rivers Drake. The digital story "The Blenman House: A Victorian Adobe Mansion in Tucson, Arizona" can be downloaded and viewed in QuickTime and iTunes.

The Missions Initiative has a new website that is published in both English and Spanish. You may like watching many of the videos from the November 2008 TICRAT AZ | SON, International Workshop on the Conservation and Restoration of Earthen Architecture Arizona|Sonora. Specialists in the areas of traditional earthen building skills, preservation and conservation from the United States and Mexico presented sessions on adobe and adobe coatings, documentation, conservation, restoration and preservation. The videos are streaming so you won't need to download them (large file sizes) but you will need a highspeed Internet connection and fairly recent computer to display the video without it breaking up on the screen.

Missions Initiative Goals

Conceived at the start of the 21st century, the Missions Initiative guides the development of an international, multidisciplinary partnership for cultural resource management. The Missions Initiative involves hundreds of Spanish Colonial Mission sites in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Representatives from the United States National Park Service (NPS) and the Mexico Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) are collaborating to protect cultural resources and promote heritage tourism through the re-establishment of historic links among Spanish Colonial missions. The initiative has already begun to foster cooperation among independent research organizations, academic institutions, non-profit agencies, ecclesiastic authorities, and partners in federal, state, and local governments.